Same-sex marriage

"Our hearts are with everyone in Maine who fought so hard to win recognition for their families. The legislature passed marriage equality earlier this year, but a divisive anti-LGBT campaign to scare voters seems to have worked." - ProsePetals (aka Denise)

It is too early for apparently the majority of Americans to join the civilized world, where everyone is equal. - Rene Wirtz

The very first time. And it is the first federal law to explicitly protect transgender people. Oh happy day! :) - ProsePetals (aka Denise)

10 years of GOP rule didn't help matters. - Joe Silence is not dead

"Hoagland isn't the same woman she was before Sept. 11. Nor is she the same woman, baptized a Mormon, she was before Mark came out to her as gay in 1991." - Richard ¿digame? Walker from Bookmarklet

Good read. Thanks for posting, Richard. - Derrick

Hey no problem! :) - Richard ¿digame? Walker

""I give you my word," he looked into my eyes and said. "President Barack Obama will be a friend to gay people." I remembered hearing those same words from David Mixner, Bill Clinton's gay campaign advisor, at a D.C. gay rights demonstration in 1991. Don't drink the Kool-Aid again, a voice in my head warned me." - Chuck LeDuc Díaz from Bookmarklet

I keep telling myself that the only thing that matters is who President Obama nominates to the Supreme Court. It is scant comfort. - Chuck LeDuc Díaz

that's a good point, Chuck. - mjc

On Sunday, he urged backers of gay marriage to follow the lesson he learned as a bodybuilder trying to lift weights that were too heavy for him at first. "I learned that you should never ever give up. . . . They should never give up. They should be on it and on it until they get it done." - cecily

"Queer issues will never be as important to most of my friends and family as they are to me. But now I'm not going to hesitate to ask for help, and if that turns out to be a problem, it will be short-lived. It will be fantastic if they choose to help, and it will be okay if they don't, but no friend will be allowed to work against my civil rights and remain my friend. This is called self-respect, and it starts now." - Chuck LeDuc Díaz from Bookmarklet

"But either way it goes, it seems, gays and lesbians get screwed. Black and Latino voters drawn to the polls in California because they were excited about voting for Barack Obama boosted the “yes” vote on Prop 8*. But Democratic voters who stayed away from the polls in Arkansas because they couldn’t brings themselves to vote for Barack Obama—dumbfucking crackerass racist piece-of-shit voters—helped to pass that state’s new anti-gay adoption law." - Chuck LeDuc Díaz from Bookmarklet

"(Salt Lake City, Utah) The Church of Latter Day Saints began putting together a game plan 10 years ago to ensure same-sex marriage would not become legal, a internal church memo shows. The document, obtained by Salt Lake City ABC affiliate KTVX, was sent by a member of the LDS General Authority to a member of the Quorum of the Twelve, the church’s governing body." - Chuck LeDuc Díaz from Bookmarklet

Can I has copy of memo? - Chuck LeDuc Díaz

"“There’s a movement afoot and large donors are involved who are very interested in organizing a campaign, because I do not believe in frivolous boycotts,” said Aravosis, who has helped organize boycotts against “Dr. Laura” Schlessinger’s television show, Microsoft and Ford over gay rights issues." - Chuck LeDuc Díaz from Bookmarklet

"I have been a Mormon my whole life. But after the church's campaign of hatred to ban gay marriage, I finally renounced my membership." - Chuck LeDuc Díaz from Bookmarklet

I guess being "loving and supportive of her and her family" means "contributing money to marginalize her legal status." Do these people think, at all? - Chuck LeDuc Díaz

Nice. - Derrick

"Mormons continued to register their resignations with, and post resignation letters to Signing for Something this week, citing "hatred" and "discrimination" among their chief reasons for quitting the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. These resignations come among the continuing backlash against the Mormon Church's involvement in passing California's Proposition 8 last week to take away the right of civil marriage for gays and lesbians." - Chuck LeDuc Díaz from Bookmarklet

Thanks Duncan - http://friendfeed.com/e... - Chuck LeDuc Díaz

Ah, the famous memo. Thanks Cecily! - Chuck LeDuc Díaz

Did someone say top? - Derrick

Says Stewart: "The tradition in America is a progression of individual freedoms. You know what the tradition of America would say? Gay marriage is the next step in the progression. That's the tradition of America. Your idea of tradition is a mythological Ozzie and Harriet thing." - Derrick

"On Wednesday morning, with their 3-month-old daughter, Willow, in tow, Ms. Oliveira and Ms. Vickery became one of Connecticut’s first same-sex couples to wed, in a chilly breeze outside City Hall here. Surrounded by journalists and a few friends, they exchanged rings and shared the Ikea story during their vows, along with a slow, tender kiss." - Chuck LeDuc Díaz from Bookmarklet

"Maybe anger management is necessary sometimes, but this time? Fuck it. There are times when anger is a natural, justified, and even powerful reaction. Where would gay people be without anger? The event that launched the modern gay rights movement was a riot that started when the police raided the Stonewall Inn on the wrong night, queens weren't having it and fought back. Where would we be without that bunch of pissed off queens and dykes, right?" - cecily from Bookmarklet

"Remember they're "disturbed" because they've always and only ever expected you to simply "take it." Remember the injustice you and others have endured for the sake of their comfort. Remember that you do not owe them their "comfort." Remember that their "comfort" is not your responsibility. Remember that they do not have the right to be "comfortable" at your expense." - cecily

"Focus on the Family, the ultra-conservative religious nonprofit led by James Dobson, announced on Monday that it is eliminating 202 jobs -- "149 through layoffs and 53 by not filling vacant positions."" - Chuck LeDuc Díaz from Bookmarklet

At least you get to see the SNL peeps make fun of The View. - Derrick from Bookmarklet

"The possibility that a whole new generation of American males is being raised by women without men is very challenging for the churches. I think they want to reassert some sort of male authority over the order of things. I think the pro-Proposition 8 movement was really galvanized by an insecurity that churches are feeling now with the rise of women." - Chuck LeDuc Díaz from Bookmarklet

Bookmarked for later. Thanks, Chuck. - Derrick

"Now these churches are going after homosexuals as a way of insisting on their own propriety. They are insisting that they have a role to play in the general society as moral guardians, when what we have seen in the recent past is just the opposite. I mean, it's one thing for the churches to insist on their right to define the sacrament of marriage for their own members. But it's quite... more... - Chuck LeDuc Díaz

"Outraged by California voters’ ban on same-sex marriage, a new wave of advocates, shaken out of a generational apathy, have pushed to the forefront of the gay rights movement, using freshly minted grass-roots groups and embracing not only new technologies but also old-school methods like sit-ins and sickouts." - Chuck LeDuc Díaz from Bookmarklet

Voters' economic status and religious convictions played a greater role than race and age in determining whether they supported the Nov. 4 ballot measure outlawing same-sex marriage in California, a new poll shows. The ban drew its strongest support from both evangelical Christians and voters who didn't attend college, according to results released Wednesday by the Public Policy Institute of California. - Derrick

The cover story for the December 15 issue of Newsweek, "Our Mutual Joy" (by Lisa Miller), takes a close look at religious arguments against gay marriage and what the Good Book actually says (or, sometimes more importantly, does not say) about the idea. - Derrick

"Nov. 25, 2008 | For author Richard Rodriguez, no one is talking about the real issues behind Proposition 8. While conservative churches are busy trying to whip up another round of culture wars over same-sex marriage, Rodriguez says the real reason for their panic lies elsewhere: the breakdown of the traditional heterosexual family and the shifting role of women in society and the church itself. As the American family fractures and the majority of women choose to live without men, churches are losing their grip on power and scapegoating gays and lesbians for their failures." - Richard ¿digame? Walker from Bookmarklet

Wish I'd seen this soon, thanks Richard. - Derrick

Join a new Gay Civil Rights room here at FriendFeed incorporating dozens of blogs, youtube channels and official lgbt organizations focusing on gay and lesbian civil rights. - Patrick Yaeger

"Jon Stewart had Mike Huckabee on The Daily Show last night and the second half of the appearance focused on marriage equality. Stewart really is one of the best civil rights advocates out there. Argued Stewart: "Religion is far more of a choice than homosexuality. We protection religion - and talk about a lifestyle choice - that is absolutely a choice. Gay people don't choose to be gay. At what point did you choose not to be gay? ... I think it's a travesty that people have forced someone who is gay to have to make their case."" - Derrick

"Reporting from San Francisco and Los Angeles -- California Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown asked the state Supreme Court on Friday to invalidate the voter-approved ban on gay marriage, declaring that "the amendment process cannot be used to extinguish fundamental constitutional rights without compelling justification." Brown's argument on Proposition 8, contained in an 111-page brief filed at the last possible moment before the court's deadline, surprised many legal experts. The attorney general has a legal duty to uphold the state's laws as long as there are reasonable grounds to do so. Last month, Brown said he planned to "defend the proposition as enacted by the people of California."" - Derrick